Letters to the Editor

July 28, 2017

The Austen Issue

To the Editor:

Having immersed myself in studying Jane Austen and her novels for more than 40 years — long before she became a scriptwriter and media darling — I am not too surprised to see that once again someone has written a book claiming that everything we know about Jane Austen is wrong, wrong, wrong. (See John Sutherland’s review of “Jane Austen: The Secret Radical,” by Helena Kelly, July 16.)

From D.W. Harding’s “Regulated Hatred” (she disliked everybody) to Marvin Mudrick’s “Irony as Defense and Discovery” (the smile is more of a rictus) to critics who discovered she was a communist, or a lesbian, or the secret lover of William Wordsworth’s sailor brother, there is almost no interpretation, no matter how radical, that has not nor will not be made. Addressing the cult of Janeites, Henry James wrote witheringly of “everybody’s dear Jane” while Kipling made her a central figure in a particularly jingoistic short story — to each his/her own.

Which is fine, if it keeps people reading her novels and drawing their own conclusions. Jane Austen is a writer particularly vulnerable through the transparency of her prose and the slyness of her wit to those people (even those gunning for academic tenure) to find hidden meanings, which satisfies if not their pride, then certainly their own prejudice.

ROSALIE LANG COTATI, CALIF.

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To the Editor:

Having taught the 19th-century British novel for 35 years, I would argue that the durable love Jane Austen inspires results from two things: She’s good and she wrote short, teachable novels. So she ends up on many syllabuses designed to start the semester with the charm and manageability that attract college students. My research specialty in George Eliot required that I teach “Middlemarch” as well — just as good but a terrifying 800 pages long. Going to prison? Castaway? You want more substance than the splendid but spare Jane Austen.

KATHLEEN MCCORMACK WAYNE, PA.

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To the Editor:

“What makes Austen immortal?” you ask. Her pinpoint pictures of the world and the human heart, for a start, then her sense of humor and the graceful prose that conveys her generous spirit.

Perhaps most of all, Austen’s crystal clear depiction of social class. The folderol of rank never fooled our friend Jane, and even as she detailed inequality’s structures, she always stood on equality as the foundation of her vision.

This quick skewering of an obnoxious young man in “Sense and Sensibility” is only one example. Why does he treat the people around him with undisguised contempt, she asks, then answers: “It was the desire of appearing superior to other people. The motive was too common to be wondered at; but the means, however they might succeed in establishing his superiority in ill-breeding, were not likely to attach anyone to him except his wife.”

MICHAEL LYDON NEW YORK

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To the Editor:

The charming sketch of Steventon rectory is very welcome as an illustration with Amy Bloom’s review of “Jane Austen at Home” (July 16).

The credit line mentions a stock photo agency, but it would be appropriate also to give credit to the artist, Ellen G. Hill (1841-1928), whose distinctive style is immediately recognizable. She studied in Paris and showed work at London exhibitions, and through the early 1900s was a prolific illustrator of books including “Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends” (1902) by her sister, Constance Hill (1844-1929).

FRANCIS SYPHER NEW YORK

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An American Tragedy

To the Editor:

I was surprised when reading the review of Michael Wallis’s “The Best Land Under Heaven” (July 9) that more emphasis was not placed on the purely American philosophical impetus of the Donner Party. Tragedy aside, this was a group of North American pioneers enraptured by the open lands and promises of the Western frontiers and beyond. Indeed, this push to the West Coast is Jeffersonian in nature, as the founding fathers themselves contemplated the notion that their experiment would one day stretch across the continent. And let us not forget that a young attorney from Springfield, Ill., named Abraham Lincoln was personally close to James Reed, a leading member of the Donner Party. A newly discovered Lincoln document is thought to have accompanied the group from the start of their journey through to its conclusion in California.

ANDREW DiGIANDOMENICO PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA.

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A Matter of Taste

To the Editor:

Tejal Rao’s Critic’s Take essay (“Comfort Food,” July 20), did not mention that the “London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea” was written by none other than the short story writer Helen Simpson. It was published in 1986, a few years before her first collection of stories, “Four Bare Legs in a Bed.”

As for the book’s “snotty” advice, I must defend Simpson’s prejudice against using poor quality chocolate in baked goods, though I concede this is a matter of taste. But as for it being “snotty” to state that the quality of tea used in tea bags is worse than that of loose tea, that is simply a fact. Does that mean that a cup of Lipton might not be someone’s elixir of choice over the finest cup of loose tea served perfectly steeped at just the right temperature? Of course not.

MALLAY OCCHIOGOSSO NEW YORK

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